atw: Re: pet hates

Today, my pet hate is needing to work for a living.
I'm looking outside at a perfect day and can see 30 km
all the way to Rottnest Island, which happens to be
just one of the places I'd rather be.

More generally, one of my pet hates is the use of
multipliers for reductions, as in "this is 500%
smaller than the previous model" or "ten times
slower". Of course, '100% smaller' is zero, so what is
500%?

I agree that use of abbreviations for e.g., i.e. etc.
should be avoided, but I certainly don't have any
problems with using them in tables where there are
space constraints. As for words like via... As Howard
said, who wouldn't understand "I went to Sydney via
Melbourne"? 

Enough of this word racism!! :) Having never studied
Latin, or maybe just becasue I'm lazy, I can't be
bothered finding out if words are Latin-based to work
out whether I like them or not. 

Out of interest, do you hold similar disdain for words
of other origins? I mean, do I have to say "I ate rice
rolled in seaweed", or do you accept 'sushi'? Can I
"run amok within the maelstrom"? Granted, these aren't
likely to show up in my technical docs, but we have
been talking about the language of teenage girls. But
then, can I call myself a 'technical writer' or
'communicator'? 

Certainly*, if* you* take* out* the words* from
French, Greek, Latin... origins*, English would* be a
pretty* bare* skeleton*. [* indicates words with
origins in other languages, according to M-W
dictionary]

I certainly don't understand the problems with "steep
learning curve". It simply means you need to learn a
lot in a short time, not little by little. The sort of
experience we have at the start of every new job or
with each new software application. The curve matches
the requirement. I can't see the problem? Even if
people mean there's an on-going need to learn over a
long period, that is steeper than not needing to learn
at all.

It reminds me of the arguments about 'quantum leap'
last year. It simply means going from one discrete
level to another in a jump, rather than a roll. It's
like the difference between digital and analog, or
steps and ramps.

Cheers,
Terry



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